Past Memories
by Leia Avenrose
Summary: It seems that everyone is together at last, their dreams unfulfilled, their destinies, for the first time, weaving together. The wings of an angel guide everyone down the right path, but the black wings of the devil are with their enemy. During a deadly c


            Disclaimer: I don't own _Gundam Wing© _or _Vision Of Escaflowne©_. They belong to their rightful makers, so please don't sue me. 

            Dedication: To all the fans of GW & VoE. God bless you all!

Past Memories 

By: _Lynzi Knight_

Rating: R

Part I: _Climax_

            "Come on!" The voices rising to a loud whine of protest belonged to the teenagers in the spacious front yard. The complaining, screaming and breathless whining did well for the old woman sitting contently in her wooden rocker, on the used front porch of the old manor. "Damnit, pass it already, Tomi!"

            With knitting in hand, a large pitcher full of ice and pink lemonade, the elderly woman known as 'tsubasa', lifted her head. A smile curved her thin, pale pink lips. She watched with bright lavender eyes, as the older boys of the household chased after one of their younger sisters. She had the dull football tucked close to her bouncing breasts as she sprinted across the yard, just out of their desperate reach. The woman laid her knitting down on her lap, her eyes watching her youngest granddaughter. She watched as Tomi ducked her head, just missing the extended hand of her oldest brother and rolled to the ground. She jumped back up and began to race away again. She glanced over her shoulder, suddenly laughing at the pile of brothers and sisters she had left in the middle of the yard.

            _There was just someone missing from the pile_, Tomi noted in the back of her head. Letting her head swing back around, she hit a hard, lean body, damp with perspiration, with full force. She fell to the ground, landing on her back hard. Her body bounced off the soft, short trimmed grass twice. 

            The ball slipped from her fingers, as her arms went over her head. She could hear the ball echo with every bounce it took, while hitting the ground. The blood pounding in her ears, and behind her eyes didn't help much. Her vision, as she looked up at the sky one last time, was red. Then darkness. The old woman gasped, her eyes wide in fear that the girl had hurt herself, and also in awe and wonder at what she was seeing before her at that very moment. The man whom had knocked his sister down stared at his fallen sibling, his auburn eyes sparkling with victory and concern, his lightly tanned face and bare upper torso glistening and flushed a light red from the exertion of running after the fastest family member.

            The rest of the siblings began to gather around their fallen sister, some laughing, the others congratulating their brother on doing something they could never bring themselves to do. But Tomi wasn't moving. She continued to lay there, her chest rising and falling rapidly. Beads of sweat decorated her forehead, and her long hair was scattered along her face in knotted strands of darkened honey. The old woman rose from her chair, the knitting project long forgotten, to walk to the edge of the stairs. Her eyes went wider, as everything around her disappeared, and the only people remaining were the fallen girl and the one who had become victorious, defeating her.

            The man's clothes had changed from the blue shorts to a pair of beige pants. His once bare hands were now covered with dark brown, worn working leather gloves. The girl's clothing had changed as well, her tank top and short-shorts abandoned for a larger, sliming white gown that appeared to be some sort of wedding dress. There was blood all along the front of the bodice, the full skirts soaked with the crimson fluid. The man bent down to pick something up. The woman couldn't see exactly what it was until he had begun to rise. Straightened halfway, she saw that it was a golden hilt belonging to a long bastard sword. What was he doing with something like that? What was he going to do with it?

            "Van," she called out, her hands reaching blindly for the metal rails. She stared at her grandson, as he looked over in her direction at the shout of his name. Her eyes went to his hands. She saw the football, not the sword, not a weapon of destruction. It was clutched tightly, like some sort of trophy. Van's black hair was cut in a shaggy style, his bangs going over his brow and always getting into his shy eyes.

            "Yeah, Grams?" He began to jog over towards her, just as her feet hit the paved sidewalk. "What's wrong?" He noticed her lilac eyes had turned a deadly pale white. It scared him whenever she went into those trances, he didn't know what to do with her after them. And now was a perfect example…

            Grandma Tsubasa glanced up into his face, trying to avoid the shaft of sunlight that fell towards her and got in her eyes. Her hands trembled, while her heart raced. She shook her head and whispered, her voice raspy, "So much like your father, Van…" Her voice left her for a moment, as her grandson gave her a strange, quizzical look. "Uh, bring Tomi in. Get everyone together and meet me in the study." Her old voice used to be like velvet, not it carried an exhausted tone to it. "Now. Please." She shooed him away, turning to make her way into the four-story manor.

            Van squinted after her. _What the hell was this all about now_, he wondered, curiosity beginning to unfold within. He dropped the football, letting it fall to the ground forgotten, before turning to jog back to his family members. The three girls, all seventeen and sixteen, were pale and trembling. The five men of the family, excluding himself, were eighteen and older. They all looked at him expectantly. "What did she say, Van?" Sarah Marie looked at her younger brother with wide jade eyes. "She wants Tomi again, doesn't she?" His sister always had an uncanny sense of the supernatural.

            Van nodded slowly, unsure of hose to answer that properly. Nowadays it seemed that Grams wanted Tomi for more and more time. Something was up between those two women, and he intended to find out exactly what it was. "What for this time?" It was Tara this time. He looked over at her, his eyes boring into her sky blue ones. Always the demanding one…

            "Do you think I know? If I knew, I would've told you already, Terrie," he muttered, bending to peer at Tomi's flushed face intently. "Let's just get her inside. Grams will take care of her, as will the rest of us." They all nodded solemnly.

            Benjamin bent and scooped Tomi into his arms, making his way towards the large manor. Van rose, his eyes going from every face. For some reason, and he wasn't one to push, every one of his family members didn't look like they were related. He frowned suddenly, his dark brows knitting together in thought. "Grams said she wants us to go into the study. Understood?" Again they all nodded and followed their eldest brother in silence. Van sighed heavily and began to follow, but was stopped short as soon as he reached the steps.

            "_Beware._" A whisper among the summer breeze. "_Her time is yet to come._" In his right ear now. "_Yours is next. Watch yourself, young…prince._" In his mind now.

            Van shook his head, clearing away the reverberation of the words. What the hell did it mean? Was his sister going to die? Was the rest of his family going to die? Were they in danger? What was going to happen now? He shook his head again and went into the front door, making his way towards the study in the back of the manor. The pitcher of lemonade remained outside, forgotten, a ring of water from the condensation forming around it, spreading its way for the edge of the table. A pair of small, pink booties lay on the ground, directly in the path of the approaching water.

* * *

  
            It seemed…weird to me at first, out of place, really. All I could see were the bright spots of color. They would flash rapidly in front of my eyes, and then, in the end of their joyous dance, they would wink out of all existence. Something like me, like what I had done. Had I actually done that? Was I that stupid? It had suddenly gone brighter, like I had decided to bring my face right up to a large light bulb and stare until I'd gone blind. It had gone incredibly hot, too. I didn't exactly understand why either…

            I could remember their voices, the frantic tones that sounded so full of little hope at the time. Of course, I had been too puzzled as to why everything had been happening when and why it had_. I remember seeing "Him", His white robes flowing, rippling in the gentle breeze._ _He had stood underneath a tree full of pink, small blossoms, His arms outstretched, His fingers coaxing. His face had been shadowed, kind of like He hadn't wanted me to see whom He really was, how He really appeared to the people on the other side._

_            He had reached out, His fingers looking as though they ached for me to go to him, to touch me, to comfort me…or my mangled body. I recall staring at His hands, and then upon blinking they had changed from being untainted, clean, pure, to something evil, stained in blood. The blood had been dark, dripping from His fingers. I tried to scream, to turn away from the ghastly sight, but He was drawing me in with His shadowed stare. I had called out to Him to show His face, but He had remained silent, His blood-covered fingers still reaching for me._

_            His robes were speckled with large droplets of blood. I had been horrified. Was this what I had died to come to? No, that wasn't it! Where were the chanting angels, their little golden harps in hand, their small white robes hanging off one shoulder and then draping off their little bodies? I couldn't find them, I was scared, terrified. Had I gone to hell? Had I been sent to the devil for the battles my pacifism had created, and then overcome? Had it been my fault I was here…and not there?_

_            I had wanted to see His face. I had called out again, this time asking where His golden gate was, where His angels were. His response had been, once again, silence. I had been frustrated, and so would you if you found out you had died. I had tried to stop my slowly gliding body from approaching Him the rest of the way. I had tried thrashing, but my limbs hadn't wanted to move. I had shaken my head, staring straight at the shadowed area of His head._

_            Again I had blinked. A mistake. In the place of His head had been a bleached-white skull, maggots and other various flesh-eating insects crawling, slithering out of His black hollowed eye sockets and into the clefts of His nose. His mouth had hung open, like a laughing grin. He had been laughing at me for me stupid decision that had led me to my death. I had cried out loud, His crimson-stained hands finally reaching me, touching me with their death-touch. For a second time, I had died…._

The bright light and intense heat began to lift away from me. I could see again, but I didn't think it had been something I had wanted to awaken to, and neither would you, or anyone for that matter. As I lay there, I had tried to remember what had happened that night, and also at that same time, I was trying to put names to all the many familiar faces I saw looming overtop of me. I kind of felt like I was display with them as my tourists peering intently at a famous thousand-year-old painting that had just been dug up from a massive heap of crumpled metal and burning wood.

            I wanted to scream at them. I wanted to do that because of the excruciating pain they had woken me up to. The unbearable pain all over my body was screaming out at me. I wish, now, that I had done that to those faces looking at me, their mouths flapping wildly. I had been happier earlier; within the warm, dark cocoon I had stuck myself into, before I landed in this dump. It was an extremely painful experience, to feel my crushed lungs expand forcefully and attempt to catch my breath. 

            I ended up choking on the oxygen they were forcing into my broken lungs. I felt my eyelids fluttering close, debating whether to stay open, alive, or not. I could hear the fast, uneven 'beep-beep-beep' of something rather annoying climb higher and higher to a faster pace. That irritating noise was slowly fading away from my ears. It all confused me, the whole scenario that played itself in front of my eyes. It also scared me to see so many people around and overtop of me. It would scare anyone, especially if you couldn't exactly move or hear that entirely well. If you awoke to that, what would you have done? Screamed and screamed until someone came to comfort you? Cried until you could no longer cry?

            I spotted thing being passed overtop of my chest quickly. I couldn't see anything at my sides, nor could I hear that well in both ears. It even hurt to blink! I could fee some warmth and wetness trickling down from the sides of my head. I didn't like it, only because it felt like it was coming from my ears. I felt dried up, used in the most horrible way possible. _What a pathetic way_, a voice in the back of my head said,_ for a young adult on their way with life, to end it so quickly._ I squinted against the light as it returned. Someone had moved away, bringing back the light. I couldn't really feel my body. I was only aware of the numbing pain that escalated in my neck, at the top of my head, on the front and right side of my stomach and in my lungs.

            _My legs, however, were just something dead to the world, and to me…_

During my stay, different things were called out. Each thing, I just couldn't understand. The only thing I really understood was the pain. I've lived with in my life, and now it was closing in on my heart from all directions. I could even feel the invisible fingers of the Grim Reaper flexing in anxiousness to take me back to his hellhole with him. He wanted me, which I could feel…and understand.

            "100 cc's…!"

            "Get a tube in her damn throat, now!"

            "We can still save her!"

            That last comment thrown overtop of me didn't bother me at all, it only got me thinking. The last words I heard before—I had just glanced up at the light for answers—the lights above me exploded into a thousand dozen white diamonds against a black backdrop echoed. It mingled with different other voices. They all called out to me, moaning my name in agony. They whispered my name on a single breath of air in pure ecstasy. I could feel all their pain, their pleasures. I could see all of them, for a very brief second, before their unfamiliar faces merged with the familiar ones.

            It was then that I realized my life was flashing before my eyes. It was then that my eyes closed—to only snap back open again in shock. My back arched off whatever they had me lying on. My entire body convulsed as though my soul tried to escape. Hands gripped my throbbing arms roughly, fingers digging into my charred, mangled flesh. If they touched my legs, I couldn't tell, for I couldn't even fell them.

            As my chest rose higher, my head snapped back. It began to go under my neck as though it were trying to dismember itself from the rest of my body. I saw a crowd of faces at the doors leading to what I read as **RE**. Off to the side, I could hear the 'beep-beep-beep' getting faster and faster until it ended out as one long, single beep that was continuous. As I stared out at the doors, the seven faces looked horrified, but one out of all of them grinned maliciously at me. Their head bobbed up and down, their lips moving slowly as if they spoke to me, coaxed me to my death.

            _It had taken me a long time to shut my eyes, I had been told. Instead it had been done for me…_

"Now…" I had managed to bite out through clenched teeth, and the pain I had figured I would feel. Then, it had gone dead quiet. It had gone dark, suddenly frightening me. The faces I had seen had faded rather quickly into the black background in front and all around me. It was then that I saw the bright red light ahead of me, a soft, eerie voice coaxing me to come towards it…

            To Be Continued…


End file.
